Post by Otaku on Nov 10, 2008 12:10:57 GMT 8
At what point do teachers switch on their teaching via auto-pilot? Meaning, they simple stop thinking about what their teaching or whether they can improve on their skills. When a teacher starts teaching on auto-pilot, this tells me they have either given up caring about their students, they don't like their job anymore, or they think they have reached the top of their teaching ability and have comfortably settled into not trying to improve their teaching ability. I find the last point rather ironic, considering they are supposed to be getting students to use their brains but they have shut their own off.
Recently, I was sitting in class watching one of my JTEs teach, and here were three things I noticed that could be signs of her giving up and/or becoming lazy:
1. Predominant Japanese: The JTE speaks 90+% in Japanese. I'm fully aware this has always been an issue in English classes all across Japan, but it's usually caused from a teacher's lack of confidence in their English abiliity and/or pronuncation. However, this is not the case with this JTE. She has a good command of the English language and has been teaching for 16 years.
The impact of having predominantly Japanese language in the English class is that it decreases the quality of English education. The more Japanese is used, the less focus is being placed on English language acquistion. To me, this is one warning sign.
2. Loves the chalkboard: The JTE is in love with the chalkboard more than having her students practice English. She spends more time writing on the chalkboard than actually facing her students and talking to them.
The impact of her talking to the chalkboard more than her students is the possibility of causing a gap in effective learning. If the students don't feel like they are connected with the teacher, it becomes easier for them to lose interest in the subject. Too much talking to the chalkboard is another warning sign.
3. Loves herself I believe this teacher is more interested in herself than her students. I was teaching with her recently and we were teaching the 'when (Žž‚Í) grammar point. She I couldn't believe I actually heard her say, "10 years ago I worked at XXX JHS. What were you [students] doing 10 years ago?" THE STUDENTS WERE 3 YEARS OLD!! Now, this could have been a simple mistake of using a bad example but she proceeded using this example in all three of the classes we taught.
To me this shows that she's more interested in talking about herself than interested in the students' interest. This is a warning sign that she has become lazy and/or she teaches to only entertain and/or talk about herself. To me, this is another warning sign.
Anybody care to ring in?
Recently, I was sitting in class watching one of my JTEs teach, and here were three things I noticed that could be signs of her giving up and/or becoming lazy:
1. Predominant Japanese: The JTE speaks 90+% in Japanese. I'm fully aware this has always been an issue in English classes all across Japan, but it's usually caused from a teacher's lack of confidence in their English abiliity and/or pronuncation. However, this is not the case with this JTE. She has a good command of the English language and has been teaching for 16 years.
The impact of having predominantly Japanese language in the English class is that it decreases the quality of English education. The more Japanese is used, the less focus is being placed on English language acquistion. To me, this is one warning sign.
2. Loves the chalkboard: The JTE is in love with the chalkboard more than having her students practice English. She spends more time writing on the chalkboard than actually facing her students and talking to them.
The impact of her talking to the chalkboard more than her students is the possibility of causing a gap in effective learning. If the students don't feel like they are connected with the teacher, it becomes easier for them to lose interest in the subject. Too much talking to the chalkboard is another warning sign.
3. Loves herself I believe this teacher is more interested in herself than her students. I was teaching with her recently and we were teaching the 'when (Žž‚Í) grammar point. She I couldn't believe I actually heard her say, "10 years ago I worked at XXX JHS. What were you [students] doing 10 years ago?" THE STUDENTS WERE 3 YEARS OLD!! Now, this could have been a simple mistake of using a bad example but she proceeded using this example in all three of the classes we taught.
To me this shows that she's more interested in talking about herself than interested in the students' interest. This is a warning sign that she has become lazy and/or she teaches to only entertain and/or talk about herself. To me, this is another warning sign.
Anybody care to ring in?